John Gardner, ’33, MA ’36, has always been interested in the problems of organizational renewal,
but in the following article, extracted from a speech delivered to the Hawaii Executive Conference
in Kona, Hawaii, in April 1993, he turns his thoughts to personal renewal. The speech is a
distillation of observations garnered, as he says in his own words, from years of experience “in the
nonprofit world as a foundation president, in federal government as a cabinet officer, in the
military as a Marine Corps officer and later as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Air
Force, and in business as a director of such corporations as Shell Oil, American Airlines, New York
Telephone and Time Inc.” Gardner’s distinguished career in public service has ranged from
secretary of health, education and welfare in the Johnson administration to serving as a member of
President Reagan’s Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives. In 1955 Gardner became president of
the Carnegie Corporation, and in 1970 he formed the advocacy group Common Cause, remaining
its chairman until 1977.